Automatically managing versioning of mashup widgets

1. A method for automatically managing mashup widget versions comprising: identifying a request for a mashup widget having a plurality of versions from an identifiable source; querying a data store to determine if a previous request for said mashup widget was made by the identifiable source; during the querying after determining a version was used to handle a previous request, determining a last used date that the version was last used by the identifiable source; when said previous request is not found when querying the data store: (a) determining one of the mashup versions to be utilized based upon a programmatic rule; (b) querying a user profile to determine requestor specific settings affecting the programmatic rule; and (c) applying these requestor specific settings when executing the programmatic rule; when said previous request exists: (a) automatically determining a version of said mashup widget used to handle said previous request, wherein said determined version is one of the plurality of versions; (b) comparing the determined data against a last update date associated with a most current one of the plurality of versions; (c) when the last update date is more recent than the last used date, prompting whether to use the most current version or to use determined version to handle the request; and using said determined version to generate a response to said request.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein programmatic logic for performing said identifying, querying, determining, and using is part of a container of said mashup widget.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said identifiable source is a unique network address of a computing device from which the request was issued.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said programmatic rule determines a most current one of the plurality of versions is to be utilized.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising Saving the mashup version used to generate the response to said request in the queried data store so that said saved mashup version will be used to handle future requests by the identifiable source.

6. A computer program product for automatically managing mashup widget versions comprising: a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the non-transitory computer usable program code comprising: computer usable program code configured to identify a request for a mashup widget having a plurality of versions from an identifiable source; computer usable program code configured to query a data store to determine if a previous request for said mashup widget was made by the identifiable source; computer usable program code configured to automatically determine a version of said mashup widget used to handle said previous request, wherein said determined version is one of the plurality of versions when said previous request exists; computer usable program code configured to determine one of the mashup versions to be utilized in the using step based upon a programmatic rule when said previous request is not found when querying the data store, wherein the programmatic rule determines a most current one of the plurality of versions is to be utilized; computer usable program code configured to use said determined version to generate a response to said request; computer usable program code configured to query a user profile to determine requestor specific settings affecting the programmatic rule; and computer usable program code configured to apply these requestor specific settings when executing the programmatic rule.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein programmatic logic for performing said identifying, querying, determining, and using is part of a container of said mashup widget.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein said identifiable source is a unique network address of a computing device from which the request was issued.

9. The computer program product of claim 6 , further comprising: computer usable program code configured to determine a last used date that the version was last used by the identifiable source during the querying after determining a version was used to handle a previous request; computer usable program code configured to compare the determined data against a last update date associated with a most current one of the plurality of versions; and computer usable program code configured to prompt whether to use the most current version or to use determined version to handle the request when the last update date is more recent than the last used date.

10. The computer program product of claim 6 , further comprising computer usable program code configured to save the mashup version used to generate the response to said request in the queried data store so that said saved mashup version will be used to handle future requests by the identifiable source.

11. A method comprising: identifying a request for a mashup widget from an identifiable source, wherein a widget container includes a widget version manager that manages multiple versions of the mashup widget, wherein the widget version manager maintains information for a plurality of different versions of the mashup widget and maintains per user usage records of these different versions of the mashup widget; the widget version manager querying a data store to determine if a previous request for said mashup widget was made by the identifiable source; when said previous request exists that indicates that one of the versions of the mashup widget was successfully used by the identifiable source: a) the widget version manager checking to see when a version of the widget was last updated; a. when the checking indicates the mashup widget has been upgraded between a time of the request and the previous request, notifying a requestor of a widget version update and presenting an option to the requestor to upgrade to a latest version of the widget or not; b) when the checking indicates the mashup widget has not been upgraded between a time of the request and the previous request, providing the requestor with the version of the mashup widget corresponding to the previous request; when no previous request exists that indicates that one of the versions of the mashup widget was successfully used by the identifiable source, the widget version manager determining one of the plurality of different versions of the mashup widget to be utilized based upon a programmatic rule, said widget version manager further querying a user profile to determine requestor specific settings affecting the programmatic rule and applying these requestor specific settings when executing the programmatic rule, and the widget version manager providing the determined version of the mashup widget in response to the request.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the widget version manager is encapsulated within the mashup widget, as is versioning data for the different versions of the mashup widget.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: presenting a user interface to a user for managing versioning data of mashup widgets.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the presented user interface provides an indication of whether a specific upgrade version of the mashup widget is safe along with any known incompatibilities.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the presented user interface provides a user option able to be enabled or disabled, wherein when enabled, the user option causes the widget version manager to automatically upgrade a version of the mashup widget that are marked as safe.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the presented user interface comprises: a list of versions of the mashup widget that a user is able to select for use; a change log that illustrates a set of changes for one of the versions of the mashup widget; and a conflict upgrade providing a list of compatibilities or differences among the versions of the mashup widget.